County Clerk Novack: Expanding Early Voting Hours

County Clerk Novack: Expanding Early Voting Hours

Last week we sent Waukesha County Clerk Novack a letter calling on her to expand early voting hours in Waukesha Co. A copy of the letter is posted below:

Dear County Clerk Novack,

On July 29th, U.S. District Judge James Peterson struck down numerous aspects of Republican’s rollback of voting rights. One of the key aspects of the law he shut down was the rollback on early voting and weekend voting. Judge Peterson wrote “The Wisconsin experience demonstrates that a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement, which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities." As you know Waukesha has one of the quickest growing Hispanic and Asian American populations in the state, with this in mind, the Waukesha County Democratic Party is calling on you to push for evening and weekend voting hours for all municipalities in Waukesha County.

Waukesha County is comprised of working class families, a growing minority population, and a balance of both youth and elderly voters. For many people Election Day poses a huge problem as they balance their work, with their family and their desire to cast their ballot. The purpose of early voting is to provide these people with the most opportunity possible to participate in our election process. By limiting early voting core business hours we are eliminating a solution to an election day issue that many individuals encounter. We are creating difficulties for the families of Waukesha County. This is why we are asking you to please work with your local municipal clerks to assure that working class families can vote either in the evening or on the weekend. It is also important to not overlook the religious community in Waukesha. The people who gather together every Sunday or Saturday were once able to vote directly after church with groups of friends. This tradition must be reestablished.

County Clerk Novack, to summarize, we are requesting you to do what is best for the voters of Waukesha County and push your local clerks to not only have evening hours for the working families of Waukesha, but to also allow some Saturday and Sunday voting. This is one of the most important elections in recent memory and as American’s we all deserve the right to vote in a convenient and accessible way. If one voter loses the right to vote because it is inaccessible, that is one voter to many. We welcome you to join us in assisting every single eligible voter in Waukesha County the ability to vote with ease.

-end-

We need to do all we can to make elections open for every single person to vote as easily as possible. In Waukesha where we have a rapidly growing minority population, as well as huge numbers of working families, business hours don't make it easier to vote, but pose the same problems as election day.

So please take a few moments of your time and call or email County Clerk Novack and tell her; 1. Open up early voting to the evenings for working families to vote after work. 2. Expand early voting to the weekends so that religious groups can vote together after service. 3. Voting is a right we want to expand, the more people participating the better, stop making voting harder.